Overview: PDF documents are not all created with accessibility as a goal, but content in PDF must be accessible to end users. You probably know how to add alternative text for images and mark text with heading tags, but this session will show you how to identify and address the next level of accessibility barriers in PDF documents. In addition to learning about more complicated PDF repair, this session will bring you up to speed with user agent support for PDF and help prepare you to provide appropriate guidance to clients and customers using PDF.

Objectives:

Participants will be able to identify the purpose and explain the use of the PDF rolemap feature.

Participants will be able to identify several issues that should be addressed in source formats rather than by editing the PDF document directly.

Participants will be able to repair lists, simple and complex PDF tables, and forms.

Participants will be able to explain current user agent support for PDF.

Speaker Bios:

Andrew Kirkpatrick is Group Product Manager for Accessibility at Adobe Systems. Andrew’s team attends to accessibility issues with product teams across the Adobe product line and works with customers and standards groups, including representing Adobe on the accessibility-focused committees at the FCC, the United States Access Board, and W3C accessibility working groups. Currently, Andrew is co-chair of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. In addition, Andrew and his team define Adobe’s overall strategy for accessibility. Andrew blogs about accessibility at http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility and tweets occasionally (@awkawk). Prior to joining Adobe in 2005, Andrew worked at the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media where he was Director of Technology with a focus on accessibility research and consulting.

Karen McCall is the author of many books on accessible document design for Word and PowerPoint. Her book “Accessible and Usable PDF: Techniques for Document Authors" is in its third edition with the fourth edition pending. She is a Canadian delegate to the ISO PDF/UA committee as well as the JTC1/SC35/WG6 and to JTC1 SWG Accessibility committees. Karen has presented at many conferences and provided pre-conference workshops on accessible PDF documents and accessible document design.

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